Job / God's Response from the Whirlwind and the Wonders of Creation (part 2)

God's Response from the Whirlwind and the Wonders of Creation (part 2)

Job 39:1-40:14

Chapter 39

¹ Do you know the time of birthing for rock wild goats? The piercing ones of deer you keep. ² Will you count the months they are filled, and know the time when she gives birth? ³ They will bow down, their young ones; they will labor, their birth pangs; they will send them forth. ⁴ Their sons play about, they multiply in the open field, they go out and do not return to them. ⁵ Who set the wild donkey free, and who loosed the bonds of the wild ass? ⁶ whose wilderness I have made his house and his tabernacles among salt land. ⁷ He laughs at the multitude of the city; he does not hear the roars of the driver. ⁸ He roams the mountains from his pasture and seeks every green thing. ⁹ Will you make the wild ox serve you? Or will he lodge in your feeding trough? ¹⁰ Will you bind a wild ox in the furrow of your plow? Or will he harrow the valleys after you? ¹¹ Will you trust in him because his strength is great, and leave your toil to him? ¹² Will you trust him to return your seed, and gather your grain? ¹³ The wing of the rejoicing ones is the seduced limb—is the limb of the faithful one pious and plucked? ¹⁴ for she leaves them in the dry land and upon the dust she warms them ¹⁵ and she forgets that a foot will crush it, and the beasts of the field will trample it. ¹⁶ She hardens her sons without her to emptiness; her toil without dread. ¹⁷ because God has withheld wisdom from it and has not apportioned understanding to it. ¹⁸ At that time, in the cosmic height where she soars, she laughs at the horse and its rider. ¹⁹ Did you give the horse strength? Did you clothe its neck with divine thunder? ²⁰ He makes him quake like a locust; they snort splendor, terror. ²¹ They dig in the valley, and it exults in strength; it goes out to meet the weapon. ²² He laughs at fear and is not dismayed and does not turn back from the face of the sword. ²³ Against him rattles a quiver, a lance, a blade of a spear, and a javelin. ²⁴ In shaking and trembling it swallows up the earth, and it does not believe because of the voice of the shofar. ²⁵ At the sound of the trumpet he says, "Aha!" From afar he smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. ²⁶ Does your understanding make the hawk soar and spread its wings toward the south? ²⁷ Does the eagle make its nest high at your command, and does it raise its nest? ²⁸ It inhabits the rock and lodges on the tooth of the rock and the stronghold. ²⁹ From there it spies, it eats—its eyes gaze afar. ³⁰ And its fledglings lap up blood, and where the slain are, there it is.

Chapter 40

¹ And the LORD answered Job and said. ² Will he contend with the Almighty? Let the one who reproves God answer it! ³ And Job answered the LORD. ⁴ Behold, I am of little voice—what shall I return to you? I have placed my hand on my mouth. ⁵ I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will not add. ⁶ And the LORD answered Job from the storm and said, ⁷ Gird up your loins now like a man. I will ask you, and you inform me. ⁸ Will you even frustrate my justice, make me wicked so that you may be righteous? ⁹ Or do you have an arm like God's, and does a voice like his thunder: ¹⁰ Adorn yourself now with majesty and height and splendor and glory—you shall clothe yourself. ¹¹ Scatter the outbursts of your anger and see every proud one and humiliate him. ¹² Look at every proud one—subdue him! Crush the wicked under them. ¹³ Hide their faces together in the dust; bind them in secrecy. ¹⁴ And I will also thank you because you will save yourself with your right hand.